Levellers

The Levellers were a populist and liberal political movement in England during the mid-17th century. They came to prominence at the end of the First English Civil War, when, under the leadership of John Lilburne, they demanded manhood suffrage and equal natural rights, and they gained support in the City of London and in some regiments of the New Model Army. After Pride's Purge in December 1648, their power waned, and, by 1650, they were no longer a serious threat to the established order under Oliver Cromwell, who suppressed Leveller mutinies in the army and established "the Protectorate" dictatorship.